Study Shows Low-Income Women in Kenya Get Substandard Treatment


In Kenya, low-income women who give birth in public facilities are often verbally abused. They receive inferior medical care, frequently in unsanitary conditions, and they can even be detained for not paying their fees. These and other abuses were detailed in a late 2007 study of public maternity wards across the country. Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.

...///...Source :

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-14-voa38.cfm

AVEC VIDEO :

Kenya Maternity report / Broadband - Download (WM) video clip

Aux alentours de Maralal, apres quelques heures de pluie....

Horn of Africa at tipping point, warns ActionAid

Time is running out for the Horn of Africa, hit by the combined impact of failed harvests and global increases in the price of food.

With millions facing hunger and destitution, ActionAid is warning that the region is now reaching a tipping point with increasing numbers of people unable to cope. Altogether five countries - Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti - are affected. If nothing is done, the situation could easily become catastrophic.

In Kenya, with 1.2 million people already affected and numbers rising daily.

Areas which normally get two rainy seasons a year have had inadequate rain for more than 12 months. Crops have failed, livestock have been dying.

The drought arrived at the same time as the global increase in the prices of food, fuel and fertiliser. Poor people are going hungry because they can neither produce nor buy enough food. In Kenya the price of staple foods such as maize has increased by a half in less than a year.

In the northern Rift Valley, ActionAid found that most men were away searching for water and pasture for cattle, whilst women and children struggled to survive on poisonous wild fruit called loma. It takes a day to pick enough berries for one meal, plus a day's drying and a day cooking before they are edible.

ActionAid's head of emergencies, Roger Yates explained that whilst rain has fallen in recent weeks, in many places it has been too little or too late to ensure a harvest later this year. There has also been an explosion in army worm populations, decimating crops that had been salvaged.

Roger Yates said: "People will need emergency food aid well into 2009. Women and children are suffering most from malnutrition and many are now only surviving because of supplementary food rations.

"Small holders and pastoralists must be helped to get back on their feet as soon as possible. Dams and water tanks need to be repaired, water trucked in and seeds and veterinary medicines supplied, to ensure no more crops or livestock are lost.

"Many agencies, including ActionAid, are already delivering aid, but to save lives and livelihoods much more is needed during the coming months."

ActionAid is calling on world governments to take urgent action to tackle the underlying causes of the food crisis and to increase aid shipments to the region. The charity is also launching an appeal to help poor communities with which it works. To donate, please visit www.actionaid.org.uk.

Watch a video of ActionAid's head of emergencies, Roger Yates, talking about what's causing the food crisis in Kenya and Ethiopia.

For interviews, stories and still and moving images contact Jane Moyo, ActionAid UK media team on 020 7561 7614 or 07734 023347

Source :

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/216723/121853330973.htm

Le boom humanitaire du téléphone portable

- Le potentiel humanitaire des téléphones portables, surprenant, est de plus en plus exploité. Au Kenya par exemple, les ONG les utilisent pour envoyer de l'argent aux nécessiteux. Inventaire des fonctions solidaires du mobile.

Bip-bip ! Les sonneries des portables qui commencent à résonner bien souvent dans les bidonvilles et les campagnes kenyanes pourraient être plus heureuses. Et pour cause, elles riment fréquemment avec argent. M-pesa, la dernière nouveauté de Safaricom, la compagnie locale de télécommunication, permet les transferts d'argent via le mobile et n'exige nul compte ou carte bancaire. Le principe est si simple : on charge sa carte SIM en déposant du cash auprès des innombrables points M-pesa de la rue, on indique ensuite le montant sous la rubrique « transfert d'argent » de l'appareil, on tape le numéro du destinataire et on envoie. Le receveur n'aura plus qu'à récolter le cash auprès d'un agent M-pesa.

M-pesa. Tout le monde s'y met au Kenya si bien que le modèle ne devrait pas tarder à dépasser les frontières nationales. Les dernières en date à utiliser M-pesa sont les ONG, elles qui sont constamment à la recherche du meilleur rapport efficacité – prix. « Nous nous sommes mis à utiliser le portable pour envoyer de l'argent aux victimes de la crise qui a frappé le pays après les élections. Elles peuvent ainsi avoir un accès facile au cash et acheter beaucoup plus vite ce dont elles ont besoin, » expliquait Anne O'Mahony de l'ONG Concern Worldlife à IRIN au début du mois. Les déplacements, coûteux, sont évités et l'aide arrive. « C'est tellement mieux comme ça : c'est moins cher et, comme les biens ne sont plus distribués mais achetés, ça développe les commerces. »

3,5 milliards de téléphones portables sont utilisés aujourd'hui dans le monde. Plus de la moitié des gens en a un selon un nouveau rapport cosigné par Vodafone et l'ONU. Au Kenya, présent dans la plupart des familles, il peut avoir un impact très important. Et les ONG, s'en rendant compte, ont de plus en plus recours au nouvel outil du bénéficiaire pour l'aider.

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Au Kenya, une ONG locale, PeaceNet, a envoyé des sms de prévention pendant la crise. Et de leur côté, les gens pouvaient avertir l'ONG des violences. « Ces sms nous tenaient au courant des violences, ce qui était essentiel car le gouvernement avait interdit tout reportage sur les violences, » dit Barasa Mang'eni de PeaceNet.

Entre prévention, alertes, conseils, transfert d'argent, appels et sensibilisation, le téléphone portable s'impose de plus en plus comme l'outil indispensable des humanitaires modernes. Selon Michael Joseph, CEO de Safaricom, la possibilité d'avoir un portable, du crédit pour moins d'un dollar, un accès à l'information et à de l'argent, « a été beaucoup plus bénéfique aux Kenyans que l'aide du secteur des ONG. »


Source :

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EVOD-7HFJB2?OpenDocument

Merci a cet auteur

Bulletin mensuel publie par le Gouvernement Kenyan

Drought monthly bulletin Samburu district - Jun 2008


Situation Overview
- The District is experiencing drought stress following the failure of the two successive rain seasons
- Existing water sources in the District registered drastic yield decline particularly in natural ponds, catchment pools, springs and seasonal streams leading to a slight increase in distances to water points for both households and livestock.
- Livestock body conditions particularly cattle slightly deteriorate compared to last month.
- PPR epidemic engulfs the whole district, despite spirited efforts by the veterinary department to contain the disease.
- Livestock prices slightly drop compared to last month's.
- Milk availability dwindles at the household level as grazing distances to water points increase and compounded by mediocre forage resources in most areas.
- Malaria, diarrhea and upper respiratory tract infections continue to dominate the district human disease profile but at manageable levels.
- Nutrition status rates of children less than five years slightly improve compared to last months.
- Good livestock prices are countered by hiked prices of cereals, other food and nonfood commodities thus impacting insignificantly on the pastoralists' economy and food security.
- Insecurity continues to destabilize most parts of the District constraining access and utilization of forage in these areas.

Article complet :

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/PANA-7H7DAJ/$File/full_report.pdf

Nobody ever yielded their way into a collision


Did you know that Kenya, with one of the highest fatality rates globally, loses up to 3,000 lives every year, an average of eight people killed every single day?

This makes our roads the number three killer after malaria and HIV/Aids and costs us about Sh6bn annually. Here, where the cars routinely “find their way home” from bars, driver error is a key cause of road carnage. As our society evolves, and with mobile phones join the fray, we should re-examine our driving habits.

First is to stop using roads to display pluck and prowess, an attitude most common in adolescent males. Kenyans under 25 account for over 30 per cent of those involved in road accidents and over 75 per cent of these are male.

Global statistics have long shown women to be “better” drivers overall — fewer serious accidents, fewer insurance claims and almost never “totalling” cars.


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http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9154&Itemid=5848